Progression
by Ehliena
Summary: Kylo Ren and Rey know they have intense feelings for each other, but they couldn't quite define what it was.


Kylo Ren seethed as he meditated. His uncle had taught him that meditation was the key to peace and through peace, the Force, or something like that. But to achieve that peace, he had to let go of all his emotions, to release them into the Force.

The Dark side thrives on anger, frustration, and all the other emotions.

Ren still meditated despite that. It helped him look back on his day and calm himself down enough that he could get some sleep. Or at least it used to.

After the loss of Starkiller base, and him gaining his newest scar, Ren couldn't quite sleep peacefully. It wasn't because he lost to a traitor and a scavenger. It was something else. Something he didn't quite have the word for.

It was something that involved the girl.

He didn't understand why the thought of her, any thought of her, not just the thought of her defeating him, left him in a state of not-quite anger that he couldn't quell. He knew it wasn't anger, he was intimately familiar with anger. He knew that it wasn't hate either.

It was definitely not love.

Ren knew what love was. Whatever he was feeling, it was just something that he couldn't describe.

Perhaps the next time they met, he could gain insight into whatever it was that left his stomach in knots.

Two Force Ghosts watched. One had his brow furrowed and the other was laughing.

* * *

Rey couldn't find the words to describe Kylo Ren. She knew that she hated as much, she said so to his mother.

"I'm sorry General," she said. "I just cannot understand how he could ever come back to the Light. Not after Han."

Rey's voice trembled as she said the smuggler's name. The General just gave her a sad smile.

"There's still Light in him," Leia replied. "I know it."

Rey was hesitant to say so, but she thought that the General was being a bit biased. After all that the older woman had been through, Rey hoped that for her sake, Kylo Ren did turn back to the Light.

Even so, there was a feeling she got every time she thought about him. It wasn't quite unpleasant, but it wasn't a nice feeling either. It made her uneasy.

It wasn't disgust, although there was plenty of that. Neither was it anger, she had a lot of that too. But it had a hint of curiosity.

Rey shook her head.

As long as it involved Kylo Ren, she was certain that it couldn't have been good.

The two Force Ghosts watched. This time they were both concerned.

* * *

The next time they met, it was on a battlefield, not that they expected their meeting to go any differently. They were on opposing sides. First Order versus Resistance. Dark versus Light.

They were better trained, or in Rey's case, trained, than they were the last time they met. Rey was stronger in the Force, her control was better. But Ren had more training on his side, he had more control over what he did with the Force.

"I hate you!" she spat at him while their blades were locked together.

"Do you really?" Ren raised an eyebrow.

She still felt that feeling. It was stronger now than ever before. She was convinced it had something to do with hate.

"Hate leads you to the Dark Side," Ren said. "I doubt that it's anywhere you would like to go."

"If it means defeating you," Rey said as she pushed him away using the Force. "Then maybe it's worth it."

"No," Ren shook his head. "Nothing is ever worth it."

Ren raised his hand, and Rey fully expected to be paralysed once more with the Force, just like he did to her in the Forest on Takodana. Instead she was shocked when she heard a gasp come from behind her.

It was a Knight of Ren, poised to attack her. If Ren had not stopped him, she would have been killed by the Knight's weapon. She raised an eyebrow at Ren.

"Let this serve as a lesson," Ren said as he stabbed his fellow Knight. "Not everything is as it seems."

"Wait!" she called out, seeing that he was turning his back on her and leaving. "What?"

"Not today," he replied, pushing her far away from him.

* * *

Rey thought a lot about what had happened. She couldn't wrap her head around the fact that Kylo Ren had saved her. He saved her when it would have made more sense for him to let his companion kill her. Instead he had killed his fellow Knight.

"Why?" she asked herself. "Why would he?"

The feeling that she couldn't describe was still there. It had died down a bit when she watched Ren kill that knight, but it came back quickly. She couldn't even meditate because she was analysing that feeling too much. The hate was still there, as was the disgust, but the curiosity had overpowered both emotions.

"Why?" she asked again, covering her face with her hands.

Unbeknownst to her, the two Force Ghosts were watching and shaking their heads.

* * *

Ren had been reprimanded for allowing Rey to 'kill' one of his fellow Knights. But he found that it was worth it.

While they were duelling, the feeling that he couldn't describe swelled and threatened to bring him to his knees. He now knew what the word he was looking for was.

 _Attraction_.

Ren scoffed. He had no idea why he would be attracted to her. She had been a dirty and dusty scavenger when they first met. Ren was used to seeing the kempt women of politics. Those women were attractive. Scavenger girls weren't.

He shook his head. She did intrigue him. Who was she? Why was she so strong in the Force? Those were questions that he wanted answers to.

Still, he ignored the attraction. They would clash again. He had to do his best to carry out the order to kill her. Next time, he had to make it believable.

Two Force Ghosts stood watch over Kylo Ren, smiling at each other for the progress.

* * *

"We used to fight all the time," Leia wistfully said. "Han and I."

Rey smiled at the woman. It was Han and Leia's anniversary, the first one without Han leaving a gift of some sort for the General. For the last one, Chewbacca had delivered a present that the smuggler had apparently bought before his demise.

"General?" Rey asked, knowing that doing so would cause the General to talk more about Han. She didn't mind. She didn't have stories of her own parents, so she appreciated all the stories that Leia told her.

"Oh Han and I used to argue all the time," Leia replied with a watery smile. "I was convinced that I hated him at one point."

"What changed?"

"I really don't remember," Leia admitted. "It was a slow build. One day I just realised that I didn't hate him. That I actually loved him."

"I don't quite follow," Rey said.

"Love is a difficult thing," Leia gave the younger woman a knowing look. "Some would say that hate is the opposite of love, and they're correct to a point. Hate can breed love and love can breed hate. Their true enemy is indifference."

"General?"

"That or I've had too much wine," Leia chuckled.

Later in the privacy of her own quarters, Rey ruminated on Leia's words. They may have been said when the General was less than sober, but they had a point.

 _Hate can breed love_.

Rey shook her head. Surely that didn't mean…

She had to sit down before she collapsed.

No way was she in love with Kylo Ren!

She laughed at the absurdity of it all. She didn't even know him, despite all the stories she had heard from the General, she knew nothing about who Kylo Ren currently is. All she knew of was Ben Solo.

Still, she couldn't help but admit the curiosity to know more about him was there.

The two Force Ghosts nodded at each other. There _certainly_ was progress.

* * *

The next time they meet, they were fighting Snoke together. Kylo Ren had been a spy all along.

After they had defeated Snoke and escaped from the exploding starship, they collapsed on the floor of the Falcon, catching their breaths.

Rey was the one who sat up first. That Kylo Ren's true allegiance was with the Light the whole time surprised her. It made him an even more complex person than she initially thought. This served to make her even more curious about him.

Ren watched as she sat up and studied him. He was too exhausted to move. The adrenaline from the battle having finally run out. He shot her a half-smile and hoped that she wouldn't kill him.

"I'm Rey," she said, holding a hand out in greeting and in a gesture of peace.

So that was her name. His half-smile turned into a full one.

"Ben," he replied, taking her hand, happy to finally be able to use his birth name. "Ben Solo."

Two Force Ghosts smiled at the development. Anakin was proud that his grandson had done what he couldn't: return to the Light without losing his life. Obi-Wan was proud that a new generation of Jedi was at hand, a generation of Grey Jedi.

"These are their first steps," Obi-Wan told Anakin.

"To the future," Anakin agreed. "And to each other."

* * *

Truth of the matter is, Obi-Wan said he wanted to be in this one, without being the doting grandpa of the Rey Kenobi theory. And corny Anakin is corny (and he totally ships Reylo). That said, please do leave a comment to tell me what you think?


End file.
